The musings of a kid colliding with middle age with the grace of an angry hippo, racing, on ice.

Doing it all the hard way...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Training 2010

Day two of the 2020 Training Camp in June 2009

I wanted to update all of my readers (Hey Mom, hey Jonathan) on my 2010 training. I built a chart for the year with each month having different percentages for different aspects of training. These included Strength, Recovery, Miles, Intervals, Flexibility, etc. The lower tier plan takes those priorities and translates them into weekly plans that tie to the plan and objectives for the month. January had a big emphasis on Recovery and although I had nineteen workouts I was pretty focused on taking the whole month easy. I didn’t burn it on my team rides and I was even subdued for spin class. I’m doing Yoga again and my resurgence therein has revealed how much my core has atrophied. I’m also running one day a week and that should help my bone density as well as my general fitness and cycling prowess. I believe my singular focus on cycling was bad for my overall fitness and therefore bad for my cycling. Isn’t Irony the best?

So far I’m not riding at all on Mondays and doing Yoga instead. This helps my recovery and when I ride Tuesday at lunch I’m fresh and ready to go. Wednesday is sleep in day, and I’ll ride during my lunch hour again on Thursdays. Friday is spin class and though it is so tempting to just drop the hammer and go for it, I’m showing hints of restraint. Saturday is at most a leisurely spin and usually a day of errands and chores. Sunday is my team ride and I will make that fit my schedule and not the reverse. I’ll begin putting in some strength training at the Y on Thursday mornings. I think having a day in the week when I do nothing is a big help, as is not spinning on Mondays.

So now you’ve read the overall objectives and a colorless report on what I’m doing. Is it working? I must confess; I feel really good. My energy level is better and I feel like I’m riding stronger. My back is as happy as it has been for a couple years and my eyelashes are fuller and thicker. Okay, I made up the part about my eyelashes. The message is I’m feeling pretty good.